This episode features 16 marketing experts, each sharing an absolute favorite marketing strategy. Think Like a Rock Star author Mack Collier co-hosts this special end-of-year episode, lending his perspective (and his Southern accent) to the mix.

I love featuring smart marketers, and I especially love when I can showcase women who have made it to the top of this competitive field. It doesn’t get much better than interviewing Michelle Andres, VP of Digital Media for the Baltimore Ravens. In this episode, Andres shares her insight into how mobile technology and social media are changing the face of sports marketing.

We delve much deeper than the book jacket, however, grappling with questions like the definition of success, what motivates trolls, and what makes someone an “owner” in relation to his or her own life.

MarketingProfs has changed our podcast analytics program, so it wouldn’t be fair to compare statistics for each of these episodes, but this interview featuring Ian Cleary is one of our most popular, bar none.

In this episode, Cleary describes the tools and tactics he used to launch a new blog on social media tools, grow his readership, and make such an impression on the industry that Social Media Examiner named RazorSocial a “Top 10 Social Media Blog” just six months post-launch.

In this interview, Collier shares insights into how rock stars build their fan base by catering to people who already love them: the polar opposite of the approach most brands take to acquire new customers. We also cover community building and how Collier has built a successful and supportive network of bloggers by hosting one of Twitter’s largest real-time chats, #BlogChat.

8. Jill Foster, founder at Live Your Talk, storyteller and public speaking expert

This special video edition of the Marketing Smarts podcast features networking tips from public speaking coach Jill Foster. From networking disasters to tips for making real connections at multi-day events, we cover everything you need to make the most of any conference or tradeshow. Bonus: cupcake footage at the very end of the video, hearkening back to our conversation about how networking is like a cupcake!

Every conversation I have for Marketing Smarts is fun, but interviewing a personal friend and co-worker who’s also an accomplished marketer buries the needle on my Fun-o-Meter! This episode covers marketing writing and so much more. It’s one I have even listened to more than once, and I rarely enjoy listening to my own voice again once I’ve finished editing an episode.

This episode makes my baker’s dozen list of favorite podcasts because Hertz’s insights are so surprising and potentially groundbreaking for marketers. In Eyes Wide Open, Hertz delves into research about how people make decisions, and her findings are not at all what you would expect. If it interests you to know that a criminal’s chance of making parole is statistically better if the hearing is held after lunch, then don’t miss this episode!

Remember how I said that Ann Handley’s interview buried the needle on my Fun-o-Meter? Well, my conversation with Peter Shankman pushed it into the red! I laughed out loud enough times to complicate the editing process, but the extra work was well worth it because this interview is equal parts business insight and lighthearted humor. Listen for insight into how setting a nice tone at the top directly impacts a business’s bottom line.

Having a serious conversation about a book called QR Codes Kill Kittens might seem impossible… because it is. Stratten is a marketing expert with a well-developed sense of humor, who makes serious points, but delivers them in an entertaining way.

If you have ever tried to convince your boss that printing a QR code on your business card is a bad idea, you will love this interview.

Tom Webster is a brilliant marketer, in the most literal sense. He is brilliant, he’s a marketer, and he’s a brilliant marketer.

On this episode of Marketing Smarts, Webster shares his views on conducting market research, based on his years of experience turning data into insight for Edison—the company that reports polling data for US presidential elections.

But if you think an interview about market research will be dry and boring, think again: Webster’s wry sense of humor was the last straw for my now defunct Fun-o-Meter, which I have yet to replace.

There are many more informative, fun interviews, but a baker’s dozen is limited to just 13. Between Matt Grant’s episodes and mine, we’ve covered an incredible array of marketing topics, so be sure to check out our extensive archive.